{"id":181495,"date":"2026-03-31T23:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T23:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/181495\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T23:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T23:04:09","slug":"nyc-student-detained-by-ice-returns-to-school-after-10-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/181495\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC Student Detained by ICE Returns to School After 10 Months"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was\u00a0originally published<\/a>\u00a0by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at\u00a0ckbe.at\/newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dylan Lopez Contreras sat waiting for a copy of his class schedule in a sunny fourth-floor room of his Bronx high school as his counselor walked in, wearing a \u201cFree Dylan\u201d button attached to the strap of his messenger bag.<\/p>\n

Dylan stood, and Hedin Bernard lifted Dylan\u2019s more-than-6-foot frame off the floor in a tight bear hug.<\/p>\n

It had been more than 10 months since Dylan set foot in ELLIS Preparatory Academy, a high school geared toward older, newly arrived immigrant students. The last time the two had seen each other, Dylan\u2019s hair was dyed purple and just covered his ears. Now, it fell below the 21-year-old\u2019s shoulders and the purple dye had faded to yellow.<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: (Jos\u00e9 A. Alvarado Jr. for Chalkbeat)<\/p>\n

Last May,\u00a0federal immigration officials arrested Dylan<\/a>\u00a0in a Manhattan courthouse after his asylum hearing, making him the first known New York City public school student detained during President Donald Trump\u2019s second term. The Venezuelan native became the public face of an\u00a0aggressive new phase of the government\u2019s mass deportation campaign<\/a>, remaining in custody until\u00a0his release last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After Dylan\u2019s arrest, his mom Raiza\u2019s\u00a0first call was to Bernard<\/a>. Ever since then, Bernard has, along with ELLIS founding Principal Norma Vega, led the school\u2019s efforts to rally behind Dylan \u2014 which included helping to put Raiza in touch with lawyers and advocates, organizing a student letter-writing campaign, and supporting a fundraiser for the family. With Dylan\u2019s return to ELLIS, they hope he can focus on \u201cwhat will happen, not what did happen,\u201d Vega said.<\/p>\n

But the jubilation of Dylan\u2019s return has been mixed with frequent reminders of the looming threat of immigration enforcement facing him and other ELLIS students.<\/p>\n

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, released Dylan while he awaits a decision on an appeal in his\u00a0asylum case<\/a>. An immigration judge\u00a0rejected his claim last year<\/a>, and the appeals process could take years, according to his lawyers from the New York Legal Assistance Group. But ICE has the ability to take him back into custody at any time and requires regular check-ins, his lawyers said.<\/p>\n

Shortly after Bernard reunited with Dylan Tuesday morning, as Dylan scarfed down a donut and drank coffee poured from Bernard\u2019s thermos, the counselor invited him to join a college trip that week.<\/p>\n

ELLIS staffers believe that\u00a0preparing immigrant students for college<\/a>\u00a0is the surest path out of poverty. The trip would visit three colleges in upstate New York.<\/p>\n

Dylan glanced down at his leg, where a black ankle monitor had been attached as a condition of his release. With his travel restrictions, Dylan knew he likely couldn\u2019t attend.<\/p>\n

But that didn\u2019t slow down the ELLIS staffers for long. Later that morning, Bernard asked a colleague to invite college representatives to ELLIS, so Dylan wouldn\u2019t have to leave school to meet them.<\/p>\n

Detention Still Lingers<\/p>\n

The swiftness of the changes over the past two weeks has been hard for Dylan to comprehend.<\/p>\n

After months in Moshannon Valley Processing Center, a Western Pennsylvania detention facility, Dylan had\u00a0stood at a crowded press conference<\/a>, flanked by Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, thanking his supporters in Spanish from under the blue brim of a New York Knicks hat.<\/p>\n

He had been sleeping on a paper thin cot in a cell with more than 70 men. Now he was in his own bed, cuddled with his younger siblings, ages 8 and 10, who had asked to sleep next to him. And after losing about 30 pounds in detention because he often couldn\u2019t stomach the food, Dylan had a phalanx of adults at ELLIS showering him with\u00a0food, free school supplies, and affection<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big contrast, to go through so much mistreatment, and then come back to people who love and support you,\u201d he said in Spanish.<\/p>\n

Still, his thoughts drift back to a friend in detention nicknamed \u201cEl Mayor,\u201d or the elder, who has already called Dylan to let him know how happy he was to hear about his release and to ask if he could use his public profile to advocate for the release of others. (Dylan did exactly that at his press conference.) As long as those men remain in detention, Moshannon Valley is \u201cnot going to feel very far away,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security didn\u2019t respond to questions about the conditions in Moshannon.<\/p>\n

ELLIS staffers said reintegrating Dylan into school will mean helping him catch up on all he missed over the past 10 months, while also processing the ongoing trauma of his detention.<\/p>\n

While Dylan was incarcerated, his classmates\u00a0had gone to Washington, D.C<\/a>., prepared for or taken Regents exams they needed for graduation, and kept up with the guitar lessons Dylan enjoyed before his arrest.<\/p>\n

Letters from his classmates helped sustain him as his detention stretched from days to months, and his optimism for a quick release faded. He watched new detainees \u2014 including grandparents and young kids \u2014 come and go while he remained locked up.<\/p>\n

Dylan had no formal education in detention. But he was determined to do what he could to keep up with his English.<\/p>\n

He practiced speaking with cellmates from places like China and the United Kingdom and to advocate for better treatment from the guards.<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Jos\u00e9 A. Alvarado Jr. for Chalkbeat<\/p>\n

He devoured Manga and Marvel comics donated by the advocacy group ROCC NYC, which played a critical role in supporting his family and keeping public attention on his case. He scoured an English dictionary from the facility\u2019s library to learn new vocabulary but had no one to check his pronunciation. And he tried to read some classics, such as Mary Shelley\u2019s \u201cFrankenstein\u201d and \u201cChronicle of a Death Foretold\u201d by Colombian author Gabriel Garc\u00eda M\u00e1rquez.<\/p>\n

When he returned to ELLIS last week, Vega stopped him in the hallway to hand him a gift from a staffer in her district office: a copy of Dante\u2019s \u201cDivine Comedy,\u201d another classic Dylan had asked to read but couldn\u2019t get a copy of.<\/p>\n

Dylan, who had fled Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro\u2019s repressive regime, had been\u00a0kidnapped by a Mexican cartel on his journey to the U.S.<\/a>, and spent 10 months in ICE custody, had said he wanted to understand Dante\u2019s nine circles of hell.<\/p>\n

ELLIS Gears Up<\/p>\n

Staffers at ELLIS are accustomed to helping students navigate all kinds of trauma, but they\u2019d never had a student return from long-term incarceration, Bernard said.<\/p>\n

Dylan\u2019s counselors at ELLIS plan to refer him to a Spanish-speaking therapist through a mental health clinic located on the first floor of ELLIS\u2019 building, Bernard said. And staffers will watch for any signs that he is struggling.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re also hoping to give Dylan chances to enjoy himself outside academic courses, though his ankle monitor is complicating those plans. His counselor enrolled Dylan in a swim class, but Dylan worried about getting the device wet.<\/p>\n

Schools in New York are required to continue enrolling students through age 21 \u2014 but state law doesn\u2019t stop them from staying longer if the school agrees, Vega said.<\/p>\n

ELLIS staffers don\u2019t want to keep Dylan in high school longer than necessary, but are encouraging him to stay for two years so he can master English before applying to college.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, he is eager to earn money to help his mom and siblings with rent. He hopes to take a bartending course so he can work at night without interfering with his school schedule.<\/p>\n

Dylan worked long hours as a delivery driver before his arrest, and Bernard remains concerned about how long he\u2019ll want to stay in school.<\/p>\n

Staffers at ELLIS are working on finding him an internship that allows him to make money while learning new skills and burnishing his college resume.<\/p>\n

Dylan said he\u2019s willing to stay at ELLIS \u201cas long as it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Uncertain Future<\/p>\n

Dylan\u2019s arrest, and the aggressive escalation in immigration enforcement it represented, cast a long shadow over ELLIS over the past 10 months,\u00a0reaching into every aspect of its work<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Students had begun to talk more openly about self-deportation. Pressure to abandon school for work grew as students confronted their diminished prospects for building a future in the U.S. And ELLIS\u2019 enrollment, like that at immigrant-heavy schools across the city, has declined as border crossings slowed to a trickle.<\/p>\n

Many of the ELLIS students who greeted Dylan Tuesday with tearful hugs and exclamations like \u201cbienvenidos, loco!\u201d (welcome back, crazy!) had endured their own brushes with immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n

Dylan saw a friend whose mother was deported while he was in detention, leaving her without a way to pay rent or look after her toddler during school hours. Dylan\u2019s\u00a0friend Bridget<\/a>\u00a0is considering returning to Ecuador in part because of the fear of ICE. Another student saw Dylan\u2019s ankle monitor and asked a staff member what the device did, adding that her dad had one too, Bernard said.<\/p>\n

And when Dylan greeted two fellow Venezuelan students, one asked if he\u2019d had to sleep on the floor \u2014 noting that\u2019s where he\u2019d slept after being detained while crossing the border. \u201cI know the floor,\u201d Dylan responded with a wry smile.<\/p>\n

During lunch time, Dylan settled into a booth with friends and munched on mozzarella sticks. He had a newfound appreciation for school cafeteria food.<\/p>\n

His friendships were what Dylan missed most about ELLIS, and there was lots to catch up on. The conversation soon turned to an ordinary high school concern: Dylan had to figure out what color to dye his hair next.<\/p>\n

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at\u00a0melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org<\/a><\/p>\n

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